NH Food Hub Network Signs a Memorandum of Understanding
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On May 13, six New Hampshire based food hubs came together at the 2022 NH Food System Statewide Gathering to sign a Memorandum of Understanding they developed through a five month mediated process, formalizing the NH Food Hub Network that has been in progress for over two years. A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is a document that lays out the expectations of a relationship between two or more parties. While not a legally-binding contract, a MOU creates a foundation of trust, cementing positive working relationships between each food hub, launching the network into a future of collaborative endeavors.
Each of the food hubs is unique, with its own needs, mission and vision. Communicating those individual needs was the jumping off point for the NH Food Hub Network to provide value and support to the group’s broader mission of strengthening the local food economy in New Hampshire and New England. The NH Food Hub Network’s MOU outlines the goals and outcomes the food hubs hope to accomplish together. Among those goals and outcomes: creating distribution efficiencies, increasing trade to diversify each other’s product offerings, coming together to match institutional product demand, bolstering local farmers' sales and viability, and creating shared spaces for learning and resources.
The NH Food Hub Network’s Mission Statement
To improve market opportunities for farmers, fishers, and local food producers and increase equitable access to responsibly-sourced food, by leveraging food hub collaboration, best practices, financially sustainable transactions, and above all, transparency.
The MOU Effect: How a signed NH Food Hub Network MOU positively impacts New Hampshire’s food system
More diverse product offerings at each food hub.
Whether you shop at one of the food hub’s beautiful storefronts or utilize their online ordering system for home delivery, the NH Food Hub Network MOU will allow all food hub customers more local options. Hubs will be able to purchase and trade products from parts of the state they normally would not be able to access— scallops from the Seacoast in the Upper Valley, mushrooms from the White Mountains in the Monadnock region. Want to start shopping with a New Hampshire food hub? Find a hub near you here.
Local food here, there, everywhere!
Think about all of the places food intersects with our lives— lunches our children eat in the cafeteria at school, meals served to our loved ones in the hospital, and the food that brings us together at our favorite local restaurants. With New Hampshire’s food hubs working together, there is increased opportunity for local food to be served at schools, institutions, and restaurants. When food hubs choose to collaborate, the whole region they serve reaps the benefit of having locally grown foods delivered to more institutions and more neighborhoods, reaching and accessing more New Hampshire residents.
What’s Next? The NH Food Hub Network Marches In Step
With the MOU in place, the food hubs will begin collaborative operations. As their relationships continue to grow and change, the MOU will be enhanced and updated with amendments and resolutions to ensure local food continues to move around the state with ease.
All of this collaborative work will be supported by other projects spearheaded by the NH Food Hub Network Coordinator, Katelyn Porter, including:
- A mapping project that will promote cross docking and shared transit, streamlining distribution across the state, particularly in underserved areas like the North Country.
- Advocating on behalf of the food hubs for federal American Rescue Plan Act funds to support infrastructure for facilities that can create lightly processed vegetables for sale in the state’s institutional markets.
- Embracing collaboration to expand the impact of related initiatives and projects across the state, including the New England Young Fishermen's Alliance, NH Feeding NH, and the NH Farm to School program.
Want to learn more? Explore the founding food hubs at here
